Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The Covent Garden district of London, well known today for its many interesting shops and restaurants, had a very mixed past. Originally part of Roman Londinium, it was wicked King John, who in the 13th century, established a 40 acre site for a Benedictine Convent together with its large kitchen garden. Unfortunately, no sooner had they perfected their veggies, Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Exit monks, enter noble landowners.
The Bedford family acquired the land and had intricate plans drawn up for the famous Piazza, as well as grand houses and churches for the surrounding streets. They called upon the talents of one particularly outstanding architect for this task. Who was this man, who is inextricably linked with this revival of Covent Garden?
2. The village of Kensington drew wealthy Londoners out of the disease, dirt and pollution of the old city, to enjoy the fresh air and rural surroundings. The healthiness and growing fashion of this delightful setting attracted families of distinction, and indeed was known for its many 'Poets and Painters'.
King William III, a lifelong asthma sufferer, had been badly affected by a major fire at Whitehall Palace. He looked west for alternative accommodation and purchased the house and grounds from the Finch family (Earls of Nottingham) and converted the Estate into Kensington Palace and Kensington Gardens, with Christopher Wren as architect. Although not a favorite palace for later monarchs, Kensington Palace was the childhood home of one monarch in particular. Who was that?
3. At the mention of the name Notting Hill, much of the world would conjures up a picture of a trendy, affluent area of London filled with large and attractive single family Victorian terrace houses. This image left indelibly on our brains by the magic of Hollywood make-believe. As part of the so-called Notting Hill Set (a group of young and vibrant Conservative politicians and their like-minded cohorts) we come to believe that the area has the ability to spread romance to visiting American actresses and erstwhile English booksellers.
The real history of the area will paint a very different picture. What events in 1950s London were synonymous with the real Notting Hill?
4. To look at the Shepherd's Bush area of London today, it is hard to imagine a bucolic scene of sheep grazing and shepherd's frolicking on the grassy sward. The name for the area has been in use since the 1630s, but it had remained a totally rural setting until the nineteenth century. There were just a few houses clustered around the old Roman road where the track turned off towards the spa of Hammersmith.
By the 1880s the built-up sprawl of London had spread to Shepherds Bush, which marked the western edge of the Metropolis.
In modern times Shepherds Bush has been the home of one of the great British institutions. Which one?
5. As the River Thames meanders westward, away from the center of London, about five miles from The Tower, we happen upon the parish of Fulham. The name is believed to come from either 'fowle ham', a good place for hunting ducks, or 'foul ham', a generally stinky place.
The manor of Fulham was part of the See of London, going back to the Norman conquest, and appears in the Domesday Book. The once grandly moated Fulham Palace was the summer home for the Bishop of London and retinue, dating back some six centuries. The area remained largely rural until the latter part of the 19th century, which saw a population shift as many blue collar Londoners moved into the smaller newly constructed terrace houses.
Fulham boasts a famous Association Football club. What is special about this Club, in it's standing with other London Clubs?
6. Earl's Court Village, which became a preservation area in 1972, may be something of a misnomer. There was neither a parish church or ancient nucleus here, but rather a settlement built around a brew-house, dating back to 1683.
The original growth of the area may well have been based on the success of the Ale House, as three main paths converged at that place, bringing in many customers from all directions.
From 1757 a motley mixture of builders moved into the area and built terraces of houses without any overall plan, and over a period of some eighty years an ill-assorted mixture of builders and buildings appeared around Earl's Court, with almost no big houses. The urbanization of the area just spread in an entirely uncontrolled manner, which led to Earls Court having the unenviable distinction of being the densest population mass in the nation, according to the 1971 census.
A part of Earl's Court remained a virtual wasteland for many years - a large area of West London with no apparent commercial or residential purpose. What happened to change that?
7. The town of Hammersmith, a large straggling place with a population of 45,000 souls in 1834, lay on the main thoroughfare leaving London for the West Country. It was a much used road for stagecoach travel, prior to the introduction of the railway.
It is believed that the first settlers in the area were Neolithic tribesmen living along the river some 5,000 years ago. Bronze age artifacts and Roman settlements of the third and fourth centuries CE have been excavated.
The name Hamersmyth first appeared in 1294, and is thought to reference a particular iron-smith's forge. The richness of the surrounding soil for market gardening and the proximity of the river allowed easy trade with the City.
With the advent of the railways between 1870-1890, the mass-building of housing took place, and all manner of major industries settled in.
However, amongst generations of true Londoners, Hammersmith is famous for a very particular entertainment. What might that be?
8. Along this western path upstream of the old City of London, are the ancient villages of Barnes and Mortlake. Barnes having been given to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's by King Athelstan in 925. the Domesday Book in 1086 describes the Manor at Mortlake being of sufficient land for 35 ploughs and Barnes enough for just 6.
The Manor House changed possession over the centuries from one noble or ignoble person to another. Tapestry works open and closed. Plague and Cholera came and went. The first Hammersmith Bridge opened and in 1845 the first event for which Mortlake is remembered to this day, takes place in 1856. Any guesses?
9. Located on a meander of the Thames about six miles west of Charing Cross (as the crow flies) is the ancient agrarian and fishing parish of Chiswick. Easily reachable from the City of London, it became a pleasant country retreat. The fishing village grew up around St. Nicholas church, but by the 19th century the open sewer that the Thames had become was too polluted to sustain any fish life.
From the 18th Century on, Chiswick saw the population of the area grow ten-fold with a mixture of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian architecture.
There is, however, a piece of construction that took place in the late 1950s that for many put the Chiswick name on the map. To what do I refer?
10. We now come to Bath, which by no stretch of the imagination could be considered to be a village of London. However, due to the improvement in road conditions and the design and speed of stage coaches, a visit to Bath became an easy addition to the London season.
What was it that particularly impacted the improvement in speed and travel conditions?
Source: Author
Englizzie
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bloomsby before going online.
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